The Selection of Personnel
by Debbie A. Thow
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Selection is a matching problemjob success.
to find the best person for a job, given
Biographical data has typically
the constraints of time, money, and been used to aid in the selection prothe supply and characteristics of avail- cess in the following ways:
able human resources. Further, selection is decision making under uncer- 1) To facilitate an initial screening out
tainty. We can never be sure a person of applicants who are obviously not
is "right" for the job until he or she qualified for the job.
performs it for some time. Therefore,
we must attempt to predict future job 2) To furnish information useful in
performance from past and present in- planning a selection interview with the
formation. By gathering as much rele- applicant.
vant information, as in any decision,
we reduce the uncertainty and the 3) To obtain names of references that
consequences of error. Several types may be contacted for additional data
of information (biographical data) and about the applicant's work experience
certain techniques (the selection inter- and general character.
view) have proven to be effective in
predicting future performance. Nu- 4) To collect information for adminismerous organizations use an appli- tration of personnel programs; (i.e.
cant's organizational memberships, social security number, number of
previous work experience, education, dependents, etc.); and
and other biographical information to
help make their selection decisions. 5) To collect sophisticated "behavThe assumption behind this practice is ioral histories" of applicants. (Dunthat certain bits of biographical data nette and Bass, 1963)
are good predictors of job success.
That is, those whose backgrounds
While biographical forms still incontain these items will eventually clude questions about age, education,
perform well on the job. (Dunnette and marital status, experience, and
references, new developments regarBass, 1963).
The interview, often referred to as ding biographical data have been
costly, inefficient, and usually invalid, evidenced. Systematic scoring,
is still a widely used selection tech- weighting techniques, and long
nique. Although this technique is ac- biographical-data forms resembling
cepted for the most part, it can somewhat personality or interest tests
become a very subjective and biased in content have been developed. This
selection tool. Not only are interview- recent trend in personnel administraers able to inject their own personal tion focuses on biographical data as a
prejudices into the selection decision predictor of future job success.
process via the interview, they may
Many still advocate that only an
not be furnished with relevant ques- individual's previous experiences that
tions that can differentiate between are directly and easily verifiable
--successful-~and*- unsuccessful~job--should -be-*classified-as,-biographical
holders. However, the interview re- items, since many other items are
mains the key selection instrument, "fakable." Verifiable items are called
but at the same time an imperfect one. "hard" items while those that are not
It is the purpose of this paper to ex- verifiable are called "soft" items. The
amine the uses of biographical data soft items are often expressed in
and the interview as devices to predict abstract value judgments, rather than
24
realistic behavior. An example of a
soft item would be, "What subject did
you enjoy the most in high school?"
There is obviously, no reasonable way
to check the truthfulness of such an
item. An applicant could indicate the
subject he or she thinks the organization is looking for. Whereas, verifiable
items can be checked with other records, for example, "rank in high school
graduating class" or "prior jobs with
inclusive dates." (Asher, 1972)
While an enlarged classification of
biographical items (both hard and soft)
obviously expands the amount of personal information collected, a more
constrained classification may reduce
the tendency towards fictionalization.
Items that are historical and verifiable
may result in a narrow, but representative, set of data about the individual,
while an enlarged classification may
be quite unrepresentative. However,
the most predictive items are those
which require an individual to summarize his or her feelings regarding a
whole set of experiences.(Asher 1972)
The scorable weighted application
blank (WAB) attempts to relate the
characteristics of the applicants to
success on the job through the measurement of overall ability or formal
education. The use of the WAB incorporates at least 100 hours of preparation as well as validations and updating~periodically. Unless a WAB
will be used for a large number of applicants, say in large corporations, it is
not a cost effective maneuver.
Another biodata supplement for the
application blank is the biographical
information blank (BIB). The BIB is a
highly reliable test (.60 to .93) which
-collects measureable historical. data _
(attitudes, health and early life experiences). For instance:
How old were you when you
graduated from the 6th grade?
1) younger than 10
Thow
are usually past employers, teachers
or professors, or friends and associates. These persons may then be contacted in order to provide additional information about an applicant's background, work experience, or character
and integrity. In addition, they may be
used to verify certain statements
made on application blanks.
The use of references can be useful
only if the references are honest in
their evaluation and if the hiring
organization indeed makes the
reference check. Many people tend to
exaggerate when writing references,
in fear of penalizing the applicant if
they say anything negative.
References may also provide a biased
view of the applicant since the applicant may have only requested a
reference from persons he or she felt
would give a favourable response.
The credibility of references can be
increased:
The BIB works because it has predictability according to its criterion (we
know our own past), they can be scanned, and because the answers to the
questions do not change if the questions are restated. (Owens, 1976)
Several suggestions could be
valuable as aids in developing biographical data questions. Questions
should be concise; they should be expressed so that responses can be
given in numbers; and options given to
respondents in a question should contain all reasonable alternatives, or if
this is not possible, then an "escape"
option (i.e. "others") should be provided. Lastly, questions should convey a
neutral or pleasant connotation to the
respondent and should not be
threatening.
Equal employment opportunity laws
and various guidelines of federal agen- 1) if they are contacted by phone incies restrict the types of information stead of writing;
that can be asked on application
blanks in certain situations. For exam- 2) if they write an unsolicited personal
ple, it may not be legal to ask if a per- letter rather then filling out a recomson has ever been arrested, but only if mendation form; and
they have ever been convicted of a
crime. All arrests do not lead to con- 3) if certain methods of asking quesvictions and there is a higher percen- tions are used which can reduce
tage of minority group persons ar- leniancy in response (a forced-choice
rested than nonminorities; therefore format). (Nash and Carroll, 1970)
the question may be discriminatory. In
addition, certain other laws, such as
Despite the various shortcomings of
the Fair Credit Reporting Act of 1970, biographical data, they seem to have
restrict and control the gathering of accuracy in predicting job perforadditional specific types of informa- mance. The application blank is action. The Fair Credit Reporting Act re- cepted as representative of an inquires that if credit-rating organiza- dividual's history and is used as widely
tions are used to furnish information as interviewing to help make selection
about an applicant, the applicant is en- decisions. But very few people are
titled to disclosure and must be hired in any organization without an innotified in writing that information is terview. The interview is, therefore, a
being sought. These organizations crucial part of the selection process.
gather information about inThere are three general types of
debtedness, character, alcohol, and employment interviews: structured,
drug use etc. The abuses from gather- semistructured, and unstructured. All
ing this type of personal information three have in common the interaction
are obvious. (Minter)
between two or more parties and the
As well, applicants are asked to fur- purpose of consideration for employnish a few names of references. These ment. In the structured or patterned in-
terview, the interviewer prepares a list
of questions in advance and does not
deviate from it. Many of the questions
asked in a structured interview are
forced choice by nature, allowing the
applicant little elaboration on answers
to the questions. Often the interviewer
notes the applicant's responses on a
standardized form. The distinct advantage to this type of interview is that it
prevents the interviewers from
digressing off into completely different
directions. But it also lacks flexibility in
the information revealed.
In the semistructured interview only
the major questions to be asked are
prepared in advance, as well the interviewer may also prepare some probing questions in areas of inquiry. While
this approach calls for greater interviewer preparation, it allows for more
flexibility than the structured approach. The interviewer is free to probe into those areas that seem to merit
further investigation. With less structure, it is harder to replicate the interview. However, this approach combines enough structure to facilitate the
exchange of factual information with
adequate freedom to develop insights.
The unstructured interview involves
little preparation. This nondirective approach was derived originally from
psychotherapy and counseling. The
interviewer may prepare a list of possible topics to be covered, but sometimes does not even do that. The basic
role of the interviewer is to reflect the
feelings of the other person and to
restate or repeat key words and
phrases. This tends to elicit more
detailed information from the interviewee, especially with reference to
his emotional reactions, attitudes, and
opinions. The overriding advantage to
the unstructured interview is the freedom it allows the interviewer to adapt
to the situation. But even under control, digressions, discontinuities, and
frustrations for both parties may
result. (Bellows and Estep, 1961)
The findings in research literature
indicate that only structured interviews may be viewed as valid. Under
structured conditions, the interviewer
nc
knew what to ask and what to do with
the information he received.
Moreover, the interviewer applied the
same frame of reference to each
applicant, since he covered the same
areas for each. Thus, a highlystructured interview has the greatest
potential for valid selection. (Carlson,
1970)
In order to reach a more objective
means of evaluation, an interviewer
report form seems relevant. Interview
Information Potentially
Available to Interviewer
recording forms may consist of the
following:
1) The dimensions of the job should
be carefully defined and made specific
to facilitate interviewer reliability as
interviewee's performance is
evaluated on each dimension.
2) The interviewer's judgment should
be made such that they reflect predictions of how an interviewee should ac-
tually perform on the job. Thus, the
criteria used to evaluate the performance of those currently holding the
job should be assessed and interviewees could be evaluated on those
criteria which can be addressed via an
interview.
3) Ease in completion and completion
immediately following an interview
help to assure their utility. (Steward
and Cash, 1978)
Interviewer Image
of Applicant
+ Overal I
Compare and
Weight Information
Evaluation
Characteristics of Successful
Job Holders
lnterviewer
/ ~:"d,","kEri
:bb
Holder
Other Characteristics
Milton D. Hakel, Department of Psychology, Ohio State University, illustrates the lnterviewer InformationProcess that occurs in the above
model. The process is necessarily
subjective, as individual judgment and
perception play an important role.
Some information from each category
is used to form the interviewer's image of the interviewee and compare
this evaluation with the stereotype of
the "ideal." The evaluation could be
erroneous if perceptions used to form
it were incorrect because of
Good interviewing requires more
thought, structure, and planning than it
typically receives and effective interviews are those that help to identify
candidates who will succeed on the
job. Interviews should emphasize the
26
evaluation of characteristics, such as
verbal skills, which cannot be easily
assessed through other selection
techniques. Because of validity problems, interviews are best utilized as
one predictor amongst several which
together provide a rationale for selection or rejection of a candidate. This is
important because not all successful
job performers are good interviewees,
and not all jobs require the type of
characteristics that would be evident
in an interview. (Hareton, 1970)
,".--,
As in-any administrative decision,
the more information present, the
more probable it is that an efficient
decision will be made. In terms of personnel selection, biographical data
and the interview are two sources of
gathering information that will be in-
strumental in the decision making process. But, an administrator must be
aware of the problem first, before he
or she can attempt to find a solution. A
current job description is necessary to
inform those to be involved with the
decision and to guide the search for
the "right" person to fill the position.
(Bibliography on p. 29)
INTERVIEW RECORD SHEET
NAME
HOME BACKGROUND
Locality
Age
Father's occup.
Place and no. in family
Special circs.
SCHOOL
Dates
1. Primary
2. S.M., S.T., S.G., PUB., OTHER
Grade or stream
G.C.E. ord. age
G.C.E. adv. age
Part in games or other school activities
Qualification
FURTHER EDUCATION
Type of Institution
Part in Social Life
WORKING LlFE
Firm
SERVICE LIFE
Dates
Arm of Service
SPARE TIME
Practical
Outdoor
Social
Intellectual
PRESENT CIRCUMSTANCES
Married
Single -
Own Home
Living with parents
Job
Duties
Dates
Rank
Wages
Duties
ASSESSMENT SHEET
10% very much
below average
20 O/O below
average
40% average
FIRST IMPRESSION
(appearance, speech and Manner,
health, etc.)
QUALIFICATIONS
(General Education, vocational training
and previous experience)
ABI LlTlES
Verbal
Perceptual
Numerical
MOTIVATION
(Level of goals, realism and consistency in
following them up)
ADJUSTMENT
(Acceptability, sense of responsibility,
reliability, and leadership)
RECOMMENDATIONS:
INTERVIEWER
(Fraser)
28
20% above
average
10% very much
above average
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Bibliography
Asher, J. . "The Biographical Item:
Can It Be Improved?" Personnel
Psychology 25 (1972): 251-269.
Bellows, R. M., and Estep, M. F. Employment Psychology: The Interview. New York: Holt, Rinehart,
and Winston, 1961.
Carlson, R. E. et. al., "Agreement
Among Selection l n t e r v i e w
Styles," Journal of lndustrial Psychology, Vol. 5, No. 1 (1970), pp.
8-17.
Dunnette, M. D. and Bass, B. M. "Behaviouralist Scientists and Personnel Management," lndustrial Relations 2, no. 3 (1963): 115-130.
Fraser, J. M. lnterview Case Studies.
Journal 51 (1972): 431-433.
London: MacDonald and Evans Nash, A. N. and Carroll, S. J. "A Hard
LTD., 1957.
Look at the Reference Check,"
Hakel, M. D. "Similarity of Post-lnterBusiness Horizons 13, no. 5 (1970):
view Trait Rating Intercorrelations
43-49.
as a Contributor to lnterrater Owens, W. A. "Background Data," in
Agreement in a Structured EmployM. D. Dunnette (ed.) Handbook of
ment Interview." Journal of Aplndustrial and Organizational Psyplied Psychology 55 (1971): 443chology. Chicago: Rand McNally,
1976.
448.
Hareton, T. Interview; The Execu- Steward, C. J., and Cash, W. B. Intertive's Guide To Selecting The Right
viewing: Principles and Practices.
Personnel, New York: Hastings
2d ed. Dubuque, Iowa: W. C.
House, 1970.
Brown, 1978.
Minter, R. L. "Human Rights and PreEmployment Injuries," Personnel
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